Ultra-Low-Bit Quantization with IQ-DynamicGate (1-2 bit)
Our latest quantization method introduces precision-adaptive quantization for ultra-low-bit models (1-2 bit), with benchmark-proven improvements on Llama-3-8B. This approach uses layer-specific strategies to preserve accuracy while maintaining extreme memory efficiency.
Benchmark Context
All tests conducted on Llama-3-8B-Instruct using:
Standard perplexity evaluation pipeline
2048-token context window
Same prompt set across all quantizations
Method
Dynamic Precision Allocation:
First/Last 25% of layers → IQ4_XS (selected layers)
Middle 50% → IQ2_XXS/IQ3_S (increase efficiency)
Critical Component Protection:
Embeddings/output layers use Q5_K
Reduces error propagation by 38% vs standard 1-2bit
Quantization Performance Comparison (Llama-3-8B)
Quantization
Standard PPL
DynamicGate PPL
Δ PPL
Std Size
DG Size
Δ Size
Std Speed
DG Speed
IQ2_XXS
11.30
9.84
-12.9%
2.5G
2.6G
+0.1G
234s
246s
IQ2_XS
11.72
11.63
-0.8%
2.7G
2.8G
+0.1G
242s
246s
IQ2_S
14.31
9.02
-36.9%
2.7G
2.9G
+0.2G
238s
244s
IQ1_M
27.46
15.41
-43.9%
2.2G
2.5G
+0.3G
206s
212s
IQ1_S
53.07
32.00
-39.7%
2.1G
2.4G
+0.3G
184s
209s
Key:
PPL = Perplexity (lower is better)
Δ PPL = Percentage change from standard to DynamicGate
Speed = Inference time (CPU avx2, 2048 token context)
✔ Cpu and Edge Devices where 1-2bit errors can be tolerated
✔ Research into ultra-low-bit quantization
Choosing the Right Model Format
Selecting the correct model format depends on your hardware capabilities and memory constraints.
BF16 (Brain Float 16) – Use if BF16 acceleration is available
A 16-bit floating-point format designed for faster computation while retaining good precision.
Provides similar dynamic range as FP32 but with lower memory usage.
Recommended if your hardware supports BF16 acceleration (check your device's specs).
Ideal for high-performance inference with reduced memory footprint compared to FP32.
📌 Use BF16 if:
✔ Your hardware has native BF16 support (e.g., newer GPUs, TPUs).
✔ You want higher precision while saving memory.
✔ You plan to requantize the model into another format.
📌 Avoid BF16 if:
❌ Your hardware does not support BF16 (it may fall back to FP32 and run slower).
❌ You need compatibility with older devices that lack BF16 optimization.
F16 (Float 16) – More widely supported than BF16
A 16-bit floating-point high precision but with less of range of values than BF16.
Works on most devices with FP16 acceleration support (including many GPUs and some CPUs).
Slightly lower numerical precision than BF16 but generally sufficient for inference.
📌 Use F16 if:
✔ Your hardware supports FP16 but not BF16.
✔ You need a balance between speed, memory usage, and accuracy.
✔ You are running on a GPU or another device optimized for FP16 computations.
📌 Avoid F16 if:
❌ Your device lacks native FP16 support (it may run slower than expected).
❌ You have memory limitations.
Quantized Models (Q4_K, Q6_K, Q8, etc.) – For CPU & Low-VRAM Inference
Quantization reduces model size and memory usage while maintaining as much accuracy as possible.
Lower-bit models (Q4_K) → Best for minimal memory usage, may have lower precision.
Higher-bit models (Q6_K, Q8_0) → Better accuracy, requires more memory.
📌 Use Quantized Models if:
✔ You are running inference on a CPU and need an optimized model.
✔ Your device has low VRAM and cannot load full-precision models.
✔ You want to reduce memory footprint while keeping reasonable accuracy.
📌 Avoid Quantized Models if:
❌ You need maximum accuracy (full-precision models are better for this).
❌ Your hardware has enough VRAM for higher-precision formats (BF16/F16).
Very Low-Bit Quantization (IQ3_XS, IQ3_S, IQ3_M, Q4_K, Q4_0)
These models are optimized for extreme memory efficiency, making them ideal for low-power devices or large-scale deployments where memory is a critical constraint.
IQ3_XS: Ultra-low-bit quantization (3-bit) with extreme memory efficiency.
Use case: Best for ultra-low-memory devices where even Q4_K is too large.
Trade-off: Lower accuracy compared to higher-bit quantizations.
IQ3_S: Small block size for maximum memory efficiency.
Use case: Best for low-memory devices where IQ3_XS is too aggressive.
IQ3_M: Medium block size for better accuracy than IQ3_S.
Use case: Suitable for low-memory devices where IQ3_S is too limiting.
Q4_K: 4-bit quantization with block-wise optimization for better accuracy.
Use case: Best for low-memory devices where Q6_K is too large.
Q4_0: Pure 4-bit quantization, optimized for ARM devices.
Use case: Best for ARM-based devices or low-memory environments.
Summary Table: Model Format Selection
Model Format
Precision
Memory Usage
Device Requirements
Best Use Case
BF16
Highest
High
BF16-supported GPU/CPUs
High-speed inference with reduced memory
F16
High
High
FP16-supported devices
GPU inference when BF16 isn't available
Q4_K
Medium Low
Low
CPU or Low-VRAM devices
Best for memory-constrained environments
Q6_K
Medium
Moderate
CPU with more memory
Better accuracy while still being quantized
Q8_0
High
Moderate
CPU or GPU with enough VRAM
Best accuracy among quantized models
IQ3_XS
Very Low
Very Low
Ultra-low-memory devices
Extreme memory efficiency and low accuracy
Q4_0
Low
Low
ARM or low-memory devices
llama.cpp can optimize for ARM devices
Included Files & Details
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-bf16.gguf
Model weights preserved in BF16.
Use this if you want to requantize the model into a different format.
Best if your device supports BF16 acceleration.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-f16.gguf
Model weights stored in F16.
Use if your device supports FP16, especially if BF16 is not available.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-bf16-q8_0.gguf
Output & embeddings remain in BF16.
All other layers quantized to Q8_0.
Use if your device supports BF16 and you want a quantized version.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-f16-q8_0.gguf
Output & embeddings remain in F16.
All other layers quantized to Q8_0.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-q4_k.gguf
Output & embeddings quantized to Q8_0.
All other layers quantized to Q4_K.
Good for CPU inference with limited memory.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-q4_k_s.gguf
Smallest Q4_K variant, using less memory at the cost of accuracy.
Best for very low-memory setups.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-q6_k.gguf
Output & embeddings quantized to Q8_0.
All other layers quantized to Q6_K .
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-q8_0.gguf
Fully Q8 quantized model for better accuracy.
Requires more memory but offers higher precision.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-iq3_xs.gguf
IQ3_XS quantization, optimized for extreme memory efficiency.
Best for ultra-low-memory devices.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-iq3_m.gguf
IQ3_M quantization, offering a medium block size for better accuracy.
Suitable for low-memory devices.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-q4_0.gguf
Pure Q4_0 quantization, optimized for ARM devices.
Best for low-memory environments.
Prefer IQ4_NL for better accuracy.
🚀 If you find these models useful
❤ Please click "Like" if you find this useful!
Help me test my AI-Powered Network Monitor Assistant with quantum-ready security checks:
👉 Quantum Network Monitor
💬 How to test:
Choose an AI assistant type:
TurboLLM (GPT-4o-mini)
HugLLM (Hugginface Open-source)
TestLLM (Experimental CPU-only)
What I’m Testing
I’m pushing the limits of small open-source models for AI network monitoring, specifically:
Function calling against live network services
How small can a model go while still handling:
Automated Nmap scans
Quantum-readiness checks
Network Monitoring tasks
🟡 TestLLM – Current experimental model (llama.cpp on 2 CPU threads):
✅ Zero-configuration setup
⏳ 30s load time (slow inference but no API costs)
🔧 Help wanted! If you’re into edge-device AI, let’s collaborate!
Other Assistants
🟢 TurboLLM – Uses gpt-4o-mini for:
Create custom cmd processors to run .net code on Quantum Network Monitor Agents
Real-time network diagnostics and monitoring
Security Audits
Penetration testing (Nmap/Metasploit)
🔵 HugLLM – Latest Open-source models:
🌐 Runs on Hugging Face Inference API
💡 Example commands to you could test:
"Give me info on my websites SSL certificate"
"Check if my server is using quantum safe encyption for communication"
"Run a comprehensive security audit on my server"
'"Create a cmd processor to .. (what ever you want)" Note you need to install a Quantum Network Monitor Agent to run the .net code from. This is a very flexible and powerful feature. Use with caution!
Final Word
I fund the servers used to create these model files, run the Quantum Network Monitor service, and pay for inference from Novita and OpenAI—all out of my own pocket. All the code behind the model creation and the Quantum Network Monitor project is open source. Feel free to use whatever you find helpful.
If you appreciate the work, please consider buying me a coffee ☕. Your support helps cover service costs and allows me to raise token limits for everyone.
I'm also open to job opportunities or sponsorship.
The DeepSeek R1 model has undergone a minor version upgrade, with the current version being DeepSeek-R1-0528. In the latest update, DeepSeek R1 has significantly improved its depth of reasoning and inference capabilities by leveraging increased computational resources and introducing algorithmic optimization mechanisms during post-training. The model has demonstrated outstanding performance across various benchmark evaluations, including mathematics, programming, and general logic. Its overall performance is now approaching that of leading models, such as O3 and Gemini 2.5 Pro.
Compared to the previous version, the upgraded model shows significant improvements in handling complex reasoning tasks. For instance, in the AIME 2025 test, the model’s accuracy has increased from 70% in the previous version to 87.5% in the current version. This advancement stems from enhanced thinking depth during the reasoning process: in the AIME test set, the previous model used an average of 12K tokens per question, whereas the new version averages 23K tokens per question.
Beyond its improved reasoning capabilities, this version also offers a reduced hallucination rate, enhanced support for function calling, and better experience for vibe coding.
2. Evaluation Results
DeepSeek-R1-0528
For all our models, the maximum generation length is set to 64K tokens. For benchmarks requiring sampling, we use a temperature of $0.6$, a top-p value of $0.95$, and generate 16 responses per query to estimate pass@1.
Category
Benchmark (Metric)
DeepSeek R1
DeepSeek R1 0528
General
MMLU-Redux (EM)
92.9
93.4
MMLU-Pro (EM)
84.0
85.0
GPQA-Diamond (Pass@1)
71.5
81.0
SimpleQA (Correct)
30.1
27.8
FRAMES (Acc.)
82.5
83.0
Humanity's Last Exam (Pass@1)
8.5
17.7
Code
LiveCodeBench (2408-2505) (Pass@1)
63.5
73.3
Codeforces-Div1 (Rating)
1530
1930
SWE Verified (Resolved)
49.2
57.6
Aider-Polyglot (Acc.)
53.3
71.6
Math
AIME 2024 (Pass@1)
79.8
91.4
AIME 2025 (Pass@1)
70.0
87.5
HMMT 2025 (Pass@1)
41.7
79.4
CNMO 2024 (Pass@1)
78.8
86.9
Tools
BFCL_v3_MultiTurn (Acc)
-
37.0
Tau-Bench (Pass@1)
-
53.5(Airline)/63.9(Retail)
Note: We use Agentless framework to evaluate model performance on SWE-Verified. We only evaluate text-only prompts in HLE testsets. GPT-4.1 is employed to act user role in Tau-bench evaluation.
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B
Meanwhile, we distilled the chain-of-thought from DeepSeek-R1-0528 to post-train Qwen3 8B Base, obtaining DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B. This model achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance among open-source models on the AIME 2024, surpassing Qwen3 8B by +10.0% and matching the performance of Qwen3-235B-thinking. We believe that the chain-of-thought from DeepSeek-R1-0528 will hold significant importance for both academic research on reasoning models and industrial development focused on small-scale models.
AIME 24
AIME 25
HMMT Feb 25
GPQA Diamond
LiveCodeBench (2408-2505)
Qwen3-235B-A22B
85.7
81.5
62.5
71.1
66.5
Qwen3-32B
81.4
72.9
-
68.4
-
Qwen3-8B
76.0
67.3
-
62.0
-
Phi-4-Reasoning-Plus-14B
81.3
78.0
53.6
69.3
-
Gemini-2.5-Flash-Thinking-0520
82.3
72.0
64.2
82.8
62.3
o3-mini (medium)
79.6
76.7
53.3
76.8
65.9
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B
86.0
76.3
61.5
61.1
60.5
3. Chat Website & API Platform
You can chat with DeepSeek-R1 on DeepSeek's official website: chat.deepseek.com, and switch on the button "DeepThink"
Please visit DeepSeek-R1 repository for more information about running DeepSeek-R1-0528 locally.
Compared to previous versions of DeepSeek-R1, the usage recommendations for DeepSeek-R1-0528 have the following changes:
System prompt is supported now.
It is not required to add "<think>\n" at the beginning of the output to force the model into thinking pattern.
The model architecture of DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B is identical to that of Qwen3-8B, but it shares the same tokenizer configuration as DeepSeek-R1-0528. This model can be run in the same manner as Qwen3-8B, but it is essential to ensure that all configuration files are sourced from our repository rather than the original Qwen3 project.
System Prompt
In the official DeepSeek web/app, we use the same system prompt with a specific date.
该助手为DeepSeek-R1,由深度求索公司创造。
今天是{current date}。
For example,
该助手为DeepSeek-R1,由深度求索公司创造。
今天是2025年5月28日,星期一。
Temperature
In our web and application environments, the temperature parameter $T_{model}$ is set to 0.6.
Prompts for File Uploading and Web Search
For file uploading, please follow the template to create prompts, where {file_name}, {file_content} and {question} are arguments.
search_answer_en_template = \
'''# The following contents are the search results related to the user's message:
{search_results}
In the search results I provide to you, each result is formatted as [webpage X begin]...[webpage X end], where X represents the numerical index of each article. Please cite the context at the end of the relevant sentence when appropriate. Use the citation format [citation:X] in the corresponding part of your answer. If a sentence is derived from multiple contexts, list all relevant citation numbers, such as [citation:3][citation:5]. Be sure not to cluster all citations at the end; instead, include them in the corresponding parts of the answer.
When responding, please keep the following points in mind:
- Today is {cur_date}.
- Not all content in the search results is closely related to the user's question. You need to evaluate and filter the search results based on the question.
- For listing-type questions (e.g., listing all flight information), try to limit the answer to 10 key points and inform the user that they can refer to the search sources for complete information. Prioritize providing the most complete and relevant items in the list. Avoid mentioning content not provided in the search results unless necessary.
- For creative tasks (e.g., writing an essay), ensure that references are cited within the body of the text, such as [citation:3][citation:5], rather than only at the end of the text. You need to interpret and summarize the user's requirements, choose an appropriate format, fully utilize the search results, extract key information, and generate an answer that is insightful, creative, and professional. Extend the length of your response as much as possible, addressing each point in detail and from multiple perspectives, ensuring the content is rich and thorough.
- If the response is lengthy, structure it well and summarize it in paragraphs. If a point-by-point format is needed, try to limit it to 5 points and merge related content.
- For objective Q&A, if the answer is very brief, you may add one or two related sentences to enrich the content.
- Choose an appropriate and visually appealing format for your response based on the user's requirements and the content of the answer, ensuring strong readability.
- Your answer should synthesize information from multiple relevant webpages and avoid repeatedly citing the same webpage.
- Unless the user requests otherwise, your response should be in the same language as the user's question.
# The user's message is:
{question}'''
5. License
This code repository is licensed under MIT License. The use of DeepSeek-R1 models is also subject to MIT License. DeepSeek-R1 series (including Base and Chat) supports commercial use and distillation.
6. Citation
@misc{deepseekai2025deepseekr1incentivizingreasoningcapability,
title={DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning},
author={DeepSeek-AI},
year={2025},
eprint={2501.12948},
archivePrefix={arXiv},
primaryClass={cs.CL},
url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12948},
}
7. Contact
If you have any questions, please raise an issue or contact us at service@deepseek.com.